A Whitman Chronology

7. 1881–1887

CHAPTER SEVEN Life, life an endless march ... -"Going Somewhere," 1887 As his health and energy decline, Whitman is more dependent upon others but continues working on "the principal object" in his life, Leaves ifGrass. His friends, including the long-estranged William O'Connor, rally when the 1881 edition is banned in Boston in 1882; reissued by a Philadelphia press the next year, it sells very well, largely because of the scandal involved. In 1882 Whitman publishes Specimen Days & Collect, a collection of prose writings the nearest thing to autobiography he will produce and which provides a rough chronology of some parts of his life. Oscar Wilde comes to call twice in 1882. Dr. Bucke publishes a biography of Whitman in 1883. In 1884 Harry Stafford marries (he will become a father two years later), and Walt buys a house in Camden; by the following year he has hired a housekeeper and acquired pets. New friends enter his life in this period, among them Robert Pearsall Smith and his family and Thomas B. Harned, while some old ones, such as Thomas Donaldson and Sylvester Baxter, take on new importance . Donaldson raises funds in 1885 sufficient to buy a horse and buggy, which allow Whitman some of the mobility lost through his paralysis. In the same year in England, Anne Gilchrist dies of breast cancer; two years later Whitman writes the poem "Going Somewhere" as "a memory-leaf" in her honor. Eighteen eighty-six brings the sudden death of his niece Mannahatta. Whitman resumes giving the Lincoln lecture at events organized by friends as a benefit for him in 1886 and in the following year. Money also comes from England, where about eighty admirers have contributed, and in the United States efforts are made to have a government pension instituted , though Whitman refuses to support the effort. Another venture on his behalf is the "cottage fund" raised in 1886, by which well-wishers such as Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie hope to see Whitman settled in a country house of his own for the summer months. Though a substantial sum is raised, Whitman never builds the house. He does begin work in 1886, however, on another book of poetry and prose to be called November Boughs. His poetic output declines to short pieces produced for magazines and newspapers, often for the income they provide. Translations of Whitman poems into French appear in summer of 1886 and signal his influence among the French symbolist writers . In 1887 the Whitman image is further perpetuated in photographs by G. C. Cox, in a bust by William Sidney Morse, and in oil by both John W. Alexander and Herbert Gilchrist. By the end of the decade William O'Connor is in very poor health and in 1887 visits Whitman for what proves to be the last time. In the same year Thomas Eakins is believed to have made his first visit to Whitman; late in the year he begins his portrait of the poet. In the summer of 1887 Algernon Swinburne attacks Whitman for vulgarity. Peter Doyle recedes still further from Whitman's attention but visits at least twice in these years. 16 JANUARY. Whitman concludes a letter to George and Susan Stafford by saying he is about to visit a very sick friend, a ferryman, for whom he will provide a bottle of brandy for medicinal milk punch (CORR, 3:207). 27 JANUARY. Writing to Harry Stafford about a Robert Ingersoll book that has brought unfavorable comment from Harry's minister, Whitman tells him that "True religion ... consists in what one does square and kind and generous and honorable all days." (CORR, 3:207). The letter of16 Januaryto Harry's parents supports this belief. 29 JANUARY. Part one of "How I Get Around at 60, and Take Notes" appears in the Critic. Six installments are published between 29 January 1881 and 15 July 1882 (see pw, 2:347-351). The Critic is a weekly newspaper started in this year by Jeanette Leonard Gilder, former literary columnist for the New York Herald and sister of poet Richard Watson Gilder, who in this year becomes editor of the Century. Both Gilders are friends of Whitman's. JANUARY. Whitman has a visit from Harry Stafford and his young uncle, Montgomery; James B. Marvin of Boston also visits. 7 FEBRUARY. Harry Stafford visits, and Whitman gives him a copy of Leaves ifGrass, which he begins reading for...